Aftermath
by Trebla
Summary: Set after the end of "New Earth." Rose and the Doctor tease each other about their experiences with Cassandra inside their bodies. Read at your own risk; It's a bit ridiculous.


i write stupid things sometimes.  
then, as all idiots are prone to do, i post my stupid things on the internet.  
it's alright til the end bit. that was when i unleashed my inner fangirl. um, sorry.  
**I don't own _Doctor Who_. i'dve done some really embarrassing things to them on television already if i did.**

He hadn't asked about her memories yet. Rose sat and watched the Doctor rush about the TARDIS controls, flicking this switch and pulling that lever, always seemingly at random, with no real pattern as to the means. She pushed a strand of blonde behind her ear and sighed.

"Something on your mind?" the Doctor was looking at her now, alerted by her exhalation. His eyes were a sincere brown, so unlike the striking blue they had been in the past. Rose dropped her eyes suddenly, feeling a wave of guilt wash over her. Was it wrong to still be thinking about the previous face of a man when he had changed into someone entirely new? Or did it not matter, because he was still the same underneath?

"I was...just thinkin' about Cassandra," she blurted suddenly. This wasn't entirely true, as she'd been thinking more about the Doctor himself than the vain "Last Human," but he'd been involved with their last Cassandra run-in, so it counted, right?

"Ah." The Doctor straightened up, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Actually, so had I."

"Really?" Rose said curiously. "Why?"

The Doctor shrugged and began to stroll slowly around the TARDIS, looking around at everything but Rose as he spoke. "I was just thinking about how fascinating you humans can be. Thought she was a vain, heartless-"

"Not to mention greedy," Rose interjected. The Doctor gave her a grin.

"Greedy," he agreed, "and rather cruel person. But, despite all of that, in the end, she wasn't too bad. I'd say it was pretty brave, to face up to death like that."

Rose bit her lip and stared at her fingernails. "Will you ever have to do that?" she blurted suddenly. "Ever have to actually...die?"

He studied her for a long time. Rose found herself wanting to squirm under the scrutiny, but held herself still, staring as evenly as she could into those dark brown eyes. Everything about him, she realized, was still somehow familiar. The reckless grin he had when she knew he was about to wing it; the eccentric, yet bubbly personality of his; the way he looked at her sometimes, when she could see the stars in his eyes...everything the Doctor did was new, yet it carried the echo of familiarity that she had grown to love so easily.

"Do you remember what it felt like, with Cassandra in your head?" the Doctor asked suddenly, breaking the silence. Rose blinked and shook herself out of her thoughts.

"Ah, yeah...Yeah, I do remember," she answered, feeling suddenly embarrassed. "It's a bit fuzzy, but I remember it." She raised an eyebrow, amused. "I also remember when she was in your body, too. Told me your, ah, parts, were barely used."

The Doctor stared at her a moment, mouth hanging slightly open. "She, ah, could've been talking about my mouth," he said lamely.

Rose burst into laughter at the sight of his face. "I doubt that!" she giggled. "If there's one thing you never stop using, it's your mouth, Doctor."

He advanced upon her suddenly, the familiar grin stretching across his face. "Oh yeah? And what about you, Rose Tyler?" he said, the grin widening as he watched her scramble away from him. "There are a few particular things _I _can remember about that woman's time in your body, and I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about."

"I might," Rose returned, walking backwards around the main hub of the TARDIS. "But from my fuzzy little corner in my mind, I can definitely remember something you said...oh, what was it now... 'Yeah, still got it?'"

"What, a man can't take pride in the fact that a woman just came on to him in the most abrupt way possible?" the Doctor said, throwing a hand out and catching Rose by the arm. The girl let out a startled gasp, but the Time Lord only laughed and pulled her closer, staring her in the eye with a smile that bordered on predatory.

"It may not have been your mind, Rose, but it was definitely your body," he breathed, backing her against the terminal. There was a gleam in his eye that caused a distant corner of Rose's mind to wonder what, exactly, he planned to do, but the rest of her was rallying the defenses for one final attack.

"I'm not entirely sure I can be intimate with a man who squeaks after I kiss him." She smiled innocently.

Then it was all lips and hair and teeth and oh, was that- yes, she quite thought it was- and fire, a delicious burn that made the air rush out of her lungs in giddiness before taking another gulp and diving back in.

"Not squeaking now, am I?" the Doctor growled- actually _growled_- into her skin. Rose was too overcome to speak for a moment, distracted by the burning and the hands and the hard things poking into her from all sides to formulate a response.

"No, thank God," she gasped at length, running her fingers through that lovely disheveled hair of his, hair that didn't resemble the old Doctor's at all, but that didn't matter, because the old Doctor was being seared from her memory by the fire that had worked its way into her veins from his skin, coursing through her and obliterating everything else but him.

"Good," he said, giving her that reckless grin that she so loved. "They may be little used, but that doesn't mean they're not good."

* * *

She laughed and kissed him hard. "I'll be the judge of that, I think."


End file.
